Bayern Munich 1-1 Arsenal: The Guff

The hope has to be that the positives gleaned, chief among them the performances of the central defenders Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, together with that of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in midfield, can serve to fire them for the more realistic challenges ahead. There remains plenty to play for, not least the FA Cup. Win that and finish well in the Premier League and the season is a success. Anything less might not be so clever. – Daniel Taylor, Guardian.

Arsenal were far from disgraced in Germany, and realistically, had nothing to lose. Last season’s match at the same venue provided a springboard for a very good run of results that the team need to replicate now to keep their interest in the title race alive. They will play Tottenham on Sunday, most likely facing a very different starting eleven from Spurs’ Europa League match on Thursday. So the Gunners are likely to suffer more from fatigue, and covered a lot of ground last night to prevent Bayern running riot. – Online Gooner.

In short, Ozil was bitterly ­disappointing again. Ozil was never going to be a grafter but here he didn’t even flatter. He just deceived. He came off with a hamstring problem that will keep him out for a few weeks – a knock that made manager Arsene Wenger’s decision much easier. But even that injury cannot excuse such a lacklustre display. – John Cross, Mirror.

At £42.5m Mesut Ozil is the most expensive export in the history of German football. After his performance in Munich you wouldn’t pay two-bob for him. Ozil, the highest-paid player in the history of Arsenal, is nicking a living. So what if he scored the first of four goals in an FA Cup quarter-final at home to Everton at the weekend? That’s a sticking plaster. – Neil Ashton, Daily Mail (not linking).

Oxlade-Chamberlain was the only player who got Bayern’s backs up. Some of his first-half rampages were reminiscent of an 18-year-old Wayne Rooney, but there can be no denying his total game has come on. He will surely be in Brazil, and should play a key role in the Premier League run-in. – Miguel Delaney, ESPN.

In my unicorn-populated world of magical European fantasy, Arsenal beat Bayern by two clear goals in Munich and advanced to the Champions League quarter finals where they will now be drawn against Utd’s conqueror’s Olympiacos. In reality, chasing a two-goal win was probably a fool’s errand. And in our quixotic pursuit of progression, we have paid a heavy price. – Yankee Gunner, Arse2Mouse.

Follow the links for most post-game reading.

Disclaimer: Arseblog News is not responsible for the content of other sites or any of the stuff they might say in the bits that we haven’t picked out that you might not agree with. Especially Neil Trashton, but we just felt his ripe stupidity deserved as wide an audience as possible today. Also, please don’t go clicking on the Daily Mail to read the rest of it. It’s really not worth it (we’ve taken that pain for you) –and the Mail is a bottom-feeding, hit-whoring den of scumbaggery and only serves to highlight the very worst aspects of the human race. Which is why Trashton has a job there, we guess. Birds of a feather and all that.